Box-Office Report: "Monsters vs. Aliens" Lands In Top Spot

Ok, Jeffrey Katzenberg, you win. People seem to be into this
whole 3-D thing.

Monsters vs. Aliens easily wins the box office this
weekend, taking in an estimated $58.2 million, for the biggest
opening weekend of the year. That's about $2 million short of
experts' $60 million predictions, but it's a big enough tally to
show that there's an appetite for in-your-face movies and a
willingness to spend an extra $3-5 on a ticket to see them.
(Still, I'm
interested to know what the breakdown was in terms of receipts
from IMAX, 3D and 2D screenings.)
According to Variety, the 'toon's 1,500 3-D theaters
accounted for 58% of its weekend tally, and its 143 IMAX
screenings pulled in a record $5.2 million, or roughly 9% of its
total.

DreamWorks Animation's first 3-D film now has the third biggest
opening weekend for March, squeezing past Watchmen's $55 million
debut. The movie also pulled in an impressive $14,181 per-theater
average, which is a lot considering that it was playing in 4,104
locations.

But the real surprises are elsewhere in the top 5. The weekend's
second-place film, The Haunting in Connecticut, racked
up a better-than-expected $23 million, which should make its
distributor, Lionsgate, happy. And Summit's Knowing is
still going strong, grossing $14.7 million to grab the No. 3
spot, despite bad reviews and word-of-mouth. The film must be
generating some good feedback because it dropped less than most
experts predicted: only 40 percent.

Paramount's I Love You, Man took the fourth spot with
$12.6 million and Universal's Duplicity held down the
fifth spot with $7.5 million. Meanwhile, Fox's 12 Rounds
just barely topped $5 million this weekend, finishing in seventh
place, below what experts predicted.